From completing my inquiry project on substance abuse and being able to look

much deeper into the large problem I was able to advance my learning and
understandings of what good health education might be, reasons being is that
looking deeply into one specific area that affects our human health has allowed
me to gain greater knowledge and understanding in this area. I was able to
realise that our current government has a strategy put in place which is trying to
help and prevent substance abuse which is having such an impact on our health
and society, however I had found it strange that I had not yet heard about this
strategy before researching this topic.
For me the biggest key factor that I had found from my research was realising
that there is always going to be substances within our world and people are
always going to be taking them, however, it is our job to help try and prevent
how much and how harmful these substances are. The government are trying to
prevent teenagers from trying substances at such a young age and this is
something that can be achieved by educating children on health education whilst
young.
After completing our group presentation I realised as a future educator it will be
my job to help educate my peers and students on what a good health education
is. I had only started to learn about what a good health education is in year 11
and from my research I found that for some it is already too late and therefore I
believe children should start to learn about health education in their earlier years
of High School, however, students at primary school should still be taught about
health education and the different kind of mental illnesses there are and the
different signs there are showing that an illness or abuse is occurring, but not in
as great detail. In my opinion I believe that health education should become a
compulsory subject to make sure that children grow up to be well educated on
the broad topic of health education A key focus should be on the affects that
substance abuse has on not just themselves but on the people that surround
them as it was a key area of my learning that has change the way that I look at
health and how often substance abuse is able to be related to other kinds of
complications associated with mental health.
From a social point I found that it is hard to come across many public
rehabilitation places, however, for private rehabilitation we found that it can be
quiet expensive. I believe that when health education is to be well taught both
public and private rehabilitation services should be pushing a little more to get
themselves out there, however it should not be all up to these services, people
abusing must also have the need to get help. It was interesting to find out that
there were not many people who actually knew about the different rehabilitation
services available, which again in my eyes comes down to their education on
health.
From each of the inquiry presentations I noticed that in each different health
problem that was presented whether it be substance abuse or talking about
aboriginal people all spoke about awareness. By education people on health
issues the best thing that can happen is that awareness is being spread, this
allows and certifies what health problems there and allows for people to try and
explain ways to help. However, for awareness to be spread health education
must be engaging as I have found that health education is best taught when it is
engaging with activities, as you are able to gather and gain a greater sense of

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what you are actually learning about. I believe that this also is a way to keep
people interested in what they are learning about and are able to go home and
incubate on what they have just learnt.
Another key area of learning form my inquiry project that has impacted my view
of health from a social health perspective was relationships. I found as substance
abuse impacts relationships in various ways some which can result in reduced
sexual interests, It was strange to find out that women are more likely than men
to associate substance abuse with their relationship (Moore, Easton, Mcmahon
2012). As relationships can be the start of substance abuse they can also help
fight the abuse due to the fact that a partner or friend are usually the ones to
first notice any signs of abuse, therefore they are able to push for the abuser to
gain further help. If children are educated on health problems at a younger age
and are able to notice these signs then they are also able to act as a support and
help and try rehabilitate the abuser.
Learning about how substance abuse impacts society and really affect
employment as it can cause fatal accidents, loss of production or serious injury
which can than result in unemployment meaning that abusers can then have the
will to not bother to try and find another job, Workers who report having three
or more jobs in the previous five years are about twice as likely to be current or
past year users of illegal drugs as those who have had two or fewer jobs
(NCADD 2015). I strongly believe that if drug and alcohol testing was mandatory
within the work force, but not to punish their workers for taking an illegal
substance but to identify those in need of support and then being able to provide
that support needed, thus allowing them to maintain a full time working job
whilst also being able to get clean and achieving a better sense of well-being.
I believe that people should be educated on things that are able to take the
substance place, for example, there are a lot of reasons to why people start to
use substances, some of these include; easing of pain, boredom or being
introduced to them by a friend. So if children were to be educated on things that
are able to be used instead of substances, than their health will not be affected.
It could be something as little as talking to someone to help release any anger or
pain, it could be going out and joining a community sports team so that you are
able to feel a part of something or even if it took your mind off of the bad things
within your life.
A major key factor that changed the way I view health from a social health
perspective was learning about Harm reduction. Harm reduction is in place to try
and reduce the harm that may be associated with people abusing substances. It
focuses on a community that is able to give an advantage to individuals as they
are creating a much healthier and safer environment. I strongly believe that if
more harm reduction centres and programs are established around the world and
are able to make a well known name of themselves, than I believe that people
will not feel as pressured to hide the addiction they have and hopefully this will
then create a much safer and healthier community, overall reducing the amount
of people who choose to abuse.
Overall I believe that a good health education is where people are able to
understand that health is not just about eating well and being/looking fit but
being able to know and understand that there are so many mental complications

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that play a vital role in our health. Substance is a major factor in our mental
health and wellbeing, whether it is smoking, having an alcoholic drink every
night or taking illicit drugs it all needs to be reduced dramatically to allow for
people to be able to live a healthy life. I believe that overall form doing this
project that my view of health has changed but in a good way, as now I am more
aware of how damaging substance abuse can be not only to our health but to our
community and if we are not taught about how damaging abusing substances
really can be than I personally dont believe that the problem is going to improve
which also means the human health will be heavily affected. From this study it
shows how enormous health education really is and the need on health
education is becoming more demanding.

Reference list:

1. Moore, Barbara C., Caroline J. Easton, and Thomas J. McMahon.

"Drug Abuse And Intimate Partner Violence: A Comparative Study Of
Opioid-Dependent Fathers.". American Journal of
Orthopsychiatry 81.2 (2011): 218-227.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3077808/ . 9 May
2016.
2.

NCADD. Drugs And Alcohol In The Workplace. Ncadd.org. N.p,

2015. https://www.ncadd.org/about-addiction/addictionupdate/drugs-and-alcohol-in-the-workplace. 6 may 2015

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